Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-08-25
miscellaneous.
SuperfluOus Women.
OF THE TOTAL EXCESS OF FEMALES IN
MASSACHUSETTS MORE THAN FIVE
SIxTHs ARE WIDOWS.


throw new light on the preponderance of
women in this State. An investigation of
all the facts bearing on this social phe-
nomenon reveals tragedy which may be
told in statistics. Who are these surplus
women2 Unmarried women? So it has
been supposed, enormously.
It has been assumed that they were the
unmarried: the maidens ard spinsters
cleft" in the struggle for matrimonial
prizes. and therefore presumably not The
'.fittest." But an investigation made
shows that they are neither young maidens
nor =pinsters. but they were, not long ago,
he fittest,' the brightest of their sex.
VINO early won the love and support of
brave young fellows, and are now widows.
1t take very few figures to tell this fact in
| the tragedy. The total excess Of females
in the State is 76 1873, and OF this number
| 50 ,004. or more than So per cent are wild
ows, the total number of widowed men in
the State being 30, 154 and of widowed
women 97,158.
1T is not among women OF advanced
years.or even among those in middle life,
! hat the great excess is found. More than
half are rot vet 40, and 29,004 are of ages
between 20 and 80. They had but tasted
of the happiness of wifehood and mother
hood when they were made ''su-
perfuous." A great number of these
women are the widows Of the men
whose dreadful deaths by thou
sand forms OF mutilaton we read of in our
newspapers night and morning-the young
wage earners killed in the dangerous oc-
equations.
The perils OF the fisheries are familiar
tale. Since earliest colonial days the coast
population has derived its support mainly
from the sea, and if the down east minis
ter's salary is no longer paid in cod and
mackerel by weight or count, it is none
the less paid with cod and mackerel in an
other way. The fisherman sees but little
OF his home. His quest takes him $50 to
I 900 or more miles from Gloucester. lie
enters the little dory, and, casting off from
the vessel, exposes himself to the full force
of the Atlantic. With the best of luck, his
| sutlering5 are severe, and it is often that
the worst of luck overtakes him. Lost in
the fog, he dies in the agonies of starva
ton and thirst, and Last seen on the
Georges" is the only word that gets back
to the desOlate home at Gloucester. From
90 to 100 lives a year are lost from fishing
vessels hailing from that single port of
Gloucester. Last year the number was
l15.
Not so concentrated in one locality and
occupation, but enormously greater in the
aggregate, is the loss of lite in the inland
| industries. The network of railroads that
covers the state is the great minotaur. The
average number of fatal accidents to rail
road employees during the ten years
| 1875 to 1886, was AL per year. The
average number of accidents not fatal
was 1870, and a large proportion OF
these, it should be remembered, re-
suit ultimately in premature death. The
average number of persons not employees
kIled or walking or lying on the track
was 979 per year An analysis of the
latter number shows that the popular
notion that track walkers are usually
drunken men or tramps is as mistaken as
popular notions in general. The majority
# them are laborers, going to and from
work by the railroad track because it is
more direct than the highway.
The fatalities among men who meet
death while actually engaged in the duties
of their calling make up painful record.
Here is one case from many in my note
| DDbh. JUN IGdl lOLu was u iAti-- III vi any
man He was Zone of the boys" but
rm-hearted fellow, with plenty OF
| good sense. Annie Day was comely
affectionate girl, whose father was an
engineer on the same road. When John
was promoted to a regular post on the
platform of a passenger car of mike d
train. and told that if he kept straight he
would be baggage master in a few
months, he said he would keep straight
and marry annie. He kept his word in
both particulars but the railroad officers
did not keep theirs. John was still on the
platform of his passenger car when there
were three little Graylords in Annie's neat
kitchen. One day John was in especially
good spirits as he started off, and he looked
back and waved his dinner pail to Annie
and the three little faces in the doorway.
The next day the tr; in had covered two
thirds of the return trip when the signal
sounded for brakes. John sprang to
his post. The brakeman on the freight
car Just forward saw the passenger car
topple to one side, saw John strainng at
the brake, and turned away his eyes. The
passengers crawled out, not one badly
injured, and the trainmen looked about for
John. They found him under the wreck,
his hands clutching the broken brake
white, dead.
1t was nearly tea time, and nearly time
for John. when Annie heard the newsboys
CRYING. Last edition-all about the acct,
dent, a familiar cry that always filled her
with dreadful fear. In a moment she
had the paper. In the blur of headlines
that swan before her eyes she saw only
the words, John CRAWFORD, of this city,
killed" Annie is now one of the super
fluous" women of Massachusetts.
Now multiply this case of Annie Day by
almost he number OF weeks in the year,
change the scenes and incidents in every
case, and you begin to have a dim idea of
the tragedy of railroad employment in this
one little state so tull of roads. Multiply
by more than the number OF days in the
year, and remember the occupations of the
fireman, the miner. the quarry man. the
roofer, the painter, the dyer. the grinder
of cutlery, and many more, and you begin
to see the extent OF this suffering and
struggle. 1t is rightly called a tragedy.
It is no mere vulgar melodrama of sensa-
tional accident. 1t is the inevitable conse-
quence of character. Those manly traits
that make actions strong in defense, impel
men also to face danger in support of their
families, and of the extension and develop